Gestalt #185

Sweden

Sweden is a small country with advanced technology. Most people don’t pay much attention to it. They should, because Sweden has a history of taking care of itself while situated in a dangerous neighborhood. In WW II, Sweden avoided invasion by Nazi Germany by attaching explosives to every single piece of infrastructure and factory of value, drafting everyone who could possibly hold a gun and telling Hitler that if he invaded Sweden, he would “win”, but since the Swedes would fight to the last man Hitler would lose a huge number of his troops and they would gain nothing because Sweden would blow up everything of value before German troops got to it. Instead, the Swedes offered to remain neutral and trade with both the Allies and Nazi Germany. Hitler took the latter deal. As a result, Sweden was not bombed, did not lose a large portion of its population and was well-positioned to achieve a socialistic paradise in the 1950s. This history lesson is to provide context for a recent announcement by the Swedish Civil Defense Minister and Commander-in-Chief:

Bohlin expressed concern that the modernisation of the Swedish civil defence system was not happening fast enough and urged everyone, from managers and local councillors to private citizens, to take action.

“Many have said it before me, but let me say it with the force of my office – there could be a war in Sweden.”, he said, adding that awareness needs to be translated into practical action.

He also drew parallels with Ukraine, which faced a full-scale Russian invasion with “total resilience”, according to him.

“Such an effort can only be made quickly enough if the vast majority of people are aware of the situation and understand what is at stake,” Bohlin said.

Commenting on Bohlin’s take on Swedish broadcaster SVT on Monday, Swedish Commander-in-Chief Micael Bydén said he agreed with what the minister said.

“On an individual level, you have to prepare yourself mentally,” Bydén said, adding, “This is a very serious situation, and the clarity yesterday was unmistakable. It is now about moving from words and understanding to action”.

Charles Szumski, January 8, 2024, Swedish minister, commander-in-chief warn of possible war in Sweden, Euractiv.

Many Swedish families have “Stugas”, cottages in the woods that they can go to in an emergency. For those who don’t, there are 7 million well-equipped bomb shelters waiting for them to go to. Sweden has a surprisingly sophisticated military given the size of the country. They make their own fighter aircraft, the Gripen, designed specifically to fight over Swedish territory. All of this is public knowledge. I suspect that preparations for war that are not public will be serious. Sweden will do what it must to survive.

Iran

The attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 by Hamas was suicidal from the standpoint of the Gazans. Obviously, they did not benefit. This could easily be foreseen. The attack was ordered by Iran who view Gazans as easily manipulated and entirely expendable. The Houthis of Yemen have launched suicidal attacks on ships in the Red Sea. The US and other western militaries have been responded by bombing the Houthis, as could easily be foreseen. The Houthis are backed by Iran. Once again, Iranian leaders have manipulated an unsophisticated people to be their catspaw. How many other chess pieces will Iranian leaders sacrifice to win? When will those who are being attacked by Iran’s pawns go for the King in Tehran? To me, this is just one of the theaters of WW III. The big show is yet to come in Asia.

Dementia Dystopia

Imagine a giant warehouse, except, instead of being filled with boxes and crates, it’s filled with thousands of older people on cots. There is an unpleasant smell that hits you as soon as you enter. The moans, groans and inarticulate mutterings of the people on the cots combine to make waves of sound suffused with suffering. As you approach closer, you see heavily tattooed workers roughly changing the diapers of the people on the cots. Crude robots, mostly carts with cameras on them, bump along crowded aisles carrying human waste to a back area. Not infrequently, a larger cart comes to pick up the body of someone recently expired. It goes to the same back area.

The United States is facing a debt crisis. The US debt is now 34 trillion dollars and rapidly climbing. How will this be paid? There is no plan. Both Social Security and Medicare will soon be insolvent. What happens then? There is no plan. Study after study has shown that being infected with SARS-CoV-2 causes damage to the brain. There is evidence that the risk for long covid goes up with each re-infection. This damage is relatively mild in young people, but it may be taking its toll. On almost every metric of cognitive and mental health, young people are struggling. We are told that this is because they had to learn remotely for a few months. Is this believable? Or is the alternative hypothesis, that SARS-CoV-2 is slowly causing an erosion of mental faculties of those it infects more believable?

Consider the following possibility: What if the brain shrinkage known to be caused by SARS-CoV-2 is responsible for the declining cognitive and mental health of people in the US? What if there is a massive wave of dementia in a few years as a result? What if Congress does not act and no funds are provided for the long term care of people with dementia?

References

Brain disorders: Impact of mild SARS-CoV-2 may shrink several parts of the brain. (2023) Kumar et al. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews. 149: 105150.

COVID-19 Associated with Long-Term Cognitive Dysfunction, Acceleration of Alzheimer’s Symptoms. (2021) Alzheimer Association.

Medicare Won’t Have Enough Money to Pay Full Benefits After 2031: Report. April 5, 2023. Adam Hardy.

Gestalt # 131 – Goblin Mode: The Effect of SARS-CoV-2 on the Nervous System

Goblin mode is an internet meme suggesting laziness, disorganization and disregard of personal hygiene as a lifestyle. It has apparently become more common, and accepted, during the pandemic. Indeed, the phrase “goblin mode” was chosen as Oxford word of the year for 2022. What struck me about the official description of “goblin mode”: “unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations” is that it also describes, quite precisely, the effects of damage to the frontal lobes of the brain, something that has been reported as a result of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Goblin mode may not be a new form of “self care” but, instead, an old sign of brain damage.

I’m going to write a series of blogs about the effects of SARS-CoV-2 on body systems. I start with the acceptance of our ignorance of many of the effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection and, indeed, our ignorance of many aspects of normal functioning of the human body. I think sometimes that many people do not realize how incomplete is our understanding of basic cell function in health and disease. Biomedical research is still at its earliest stages. There is so much we do not understand. I will attempt to present some of what we know about SARS-CoV-2 given the tools and the knowledge that we do have. I admit up front that I am NOT an expert on SARS-CoV-2. You should take what I write with a large grain of salt and should consult a physician if you have concerns about your health.

The human body has a variety of interrelated systems. Although it is convenient to consider them separately, in fact, damage to one system often affects another. Disentangling the cause(s) of individual symptoms can be challenging. Take for example “fatigue” or “being tired all the time.” This can have many causes. Problems with the heart or lungs can be cause fatigue. So can depression. Depression may be caused by specific environmental events such as the loss of a loved one or as a result of a genetic disorder causing a chemical imbalance in the brain. If a patient complains of “fatigue”, it is important to understand what is the exact cause so that the appropriate treatment may be offered. This is why we need to use precise language to describe what is wrong with people rather than vague terms like “brain fog.”

One of the first questions we should address is whether we have any evidence that SARS-CoV-2 really causes damage to the brain or is “brain fog” just due to stress associated with the pandemic. Here the evidence is clear: SARS-CoV-2 can cause the brain to shrink in size. We know this because Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) studies have been conducted to measure the brain size of patients who have been infected with SARS-CoV-2. Why does SARS-CoV-2 cause the brains of some people with the disease to shrink? There are many possible reasons. The virus may directly infect the brain and kill brain cells. This has been reported, but apparently seems to be relatively rare. The virus may also cause strokes which can damage the brain due to interruption in the supply of oxygen. This is more common. One of the most active areas of research today for the effects of SARS-CoV-2 on the brain involves the immune system. One of the causes of many degenerative diseases of the brain such as Alzheimer disease is neuroinflammation. The inflammatory response is one way our bodies defend against infection. Unfortunately, as we age this response becomes dysregulated and is increasingly “on” even when we are not fighting an infection. This is one of the major causes of aging. There is evidence that SARS-CoV-2, like aging, also causes the inflammatory response to be dysregulated. In the brain, this results in atrophy, which also occurs in aging. This is likely one of the reasons that dementia is much more common in older people than younger people. In effect, SARS-CoV-2 may be causing accelerated aging of the brain. We do not know this for certain. This is only an hypothesis. What we do know is that SARS-CoV-2 causes the brain to shrink in some people and that it appears to dysregulate the immune system. Shortening the time that SARS-CoV-2 has to damage your immune system, and ultimately your brain, with Paxlovid seems to be a good idea, to me.

One of the striking results of the MRI studies as that the brain shrinkage problem is observed even in young people who had only mild symptoms. However, there is no doubt that the worse symptoms you had from COVID-19, the more likely you are to have obvious long term effects. For example, we know that people who need mechanical ventilation often have long term cognitive impairments, regardless of why they needed mechanical ventilation. In the early days of the pandemic, many people were being put on ventilators who may not have needed it. Better understanding of COVID-19 has led to decreased use of mechanical ventilation and substitution of less invasive methods to deliver oxygen. I personally would still would ask for mechanical ventilation if that was the only way to save my life. If anyone you know needs ICU level care, it is a good idea to try to get that care at the best hospital with the most experienced staff you can find.

Problems with smelling (olfaction) is one of the cardinal signs of COVID-19. Some people dismiss this as a trivial symptom. They shouldn’t. Problems with olfaction are some of the first signs of Alzheimer and Parkinson disease. There is a concern that people with persistent problems with olfaction after SARS-CoV-2 may ultimately go on to develop neurodegeneration similar to Alzheimer and Parkinson disease. If so, we may face a tsunami of people with dementia in the coming years. It will start with decreased productivity due to lack of motivation and an increased error rate. Are we already seeing that? I think it is possible. There are some treatments for Parkinson Disease. Not much is available for Alzheimer disease unfortunately. However, there is a lot of research on neurodegeneration and we can hope that some of this will help should SARS-CoV-2 be shown to cause degeneration of the brain.

Psychological issues associated with the pandemic have been attributed to stress. Chronic stress is certainly bad for the brain and can cause serious psychological issues. However, there have been cases of extreme psychiatric disorders associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection, including terrifying hallucinations and other signs of psychosis, that may be due to effects of the virus itself.

If you have any doubts about the above, please check out the references below. People who suggest that concern about Long Covid is a conspiracy to help big Pharma are just plain wrong. These people are not just attacking Big Pharma (who truly are guilty of greed). They are also attacking medical science, just plain Science, and just plain Reason. Their path leads to a new Dark Ages. Please, think for yourselves. The radio and TV people don’t care about you. They will encourage you to do things that they know will result in your death. I am certain of this.

References

Bahranifard et al. (2022) A review of neuroradiological abnormalities in patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Neuroradiology Journal.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8819585/

Bassi et al. (2022) Systematic review of cognitive impairment and brain insult after mechanical ventilation. Critical Care.
https://ccforum.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13054-021-03521-9

Crunfli et al. (2022) Morphological, cellular, and molecular basis of brain infection in COVID-19 patients. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2200960119

Dintica et al. (2019) Impaired olfaction is associated with cognitive decline and neurodegeneration in the brain. Neurology.
https://n.neurology.org/content/92/7/e700

Douad et al. (2022) SARS-CoV-2 is associated with changes in brain structure in UK Biobank. Nature.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04569-5

Klein et al. (2021) COVID-19 induces neuroinflammation and loss of hippocampal neurogenesis. Brain.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8562542/

Kluger (2022) COVID-19 May Be Linked to Spontaneous Psychosis. Researchers Are Trying to Figure Out Why. Time.
https://time.com/6153809/covid-19-psychosis-symptoms/

Sofiaa et al. (2021) Is the Frontal Lobe the Primary Target of SARS-CoV-2? Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.
https://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad210008

Tu et al. (2021) Acute Ischemic Stroke During the Convalescent Phase of Asymptomatic COVID-2019 Infection in Men. Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2779040

Gestalt #93 – Riding the COVID-Dementia Horse to Hell

There is increasing evidence that COVID-19 causes brain damage; not just in people who are hospitalized with severe symptoms, but even in those with only mild respiratory symptoms. There is no reason to think that people who are infected multiple times won’t lose brain mass each time they are infected. For most people, the loss of brain material is small with each infection. However, the cumulative effect of multiple infections may be substantial. This will lead to a decrease in intelligence. Because the brain is also responsible for moral behavior and impulse control, repeated infections of SARS-CoV-2 can also be expected to result in increasingly poor judgement and outright criminal behavior among the afflicted. We are in fact seeing indications that this may be occurring. Drug addiction and violent crime are increasing. This has been attributed to stress associated with the pandemic, but that is only an hypothesis. Given that we know that SARS-CoV-2 causes brain damage, we should also consider the possibility that the social ills that we are experiencing are due to direct effects of the virus on the human brain. If this idea is correct, then we can expect that the behavior of anti-vax and anti-mask people who don’t isolate will continue to degrade over time. Far from “getting back to normal”, the pretense that we can just “live with the virus”, which, for most people means ignoring the risk of infection, will result in a large population of demented individuals with potentially violent inclinations. They won’t want to eat your brains, but they will be incompetent, show poor judgement and have difficulty controlling their darker impulses. Not quite the zombie apocalypse, but not especially pleasant. The people who wish to avoid the social anarchy of the virus-demented may in fact have to isolate, not just from the virus, but from the increasingly dangerous carriers of a brain-destroying disease.

A Case Of Shrunken Brains: How Covid-19 May Damage Brain Cells. William A. Haseltine. Forbes. March 21, 2022.

SARS-CoV-2 is associated with changes in brain structure in UK Biobank. Gwenaëlle Douaud et al. Nature. March 7, 2022.

NIALA: Bryan, we actually talked to you about this last fall, about why violent crime surged.The most recent data was from the CDC shows that in 2020 homicides nationwide were up 30%. That’s the largest increase in recorded history. But what do we know anecdotally about 2021 and this year so far?

BRYAN: Well, what we know so far is that the situation has gotten worse. While we don’t have full national stats on 2021 homicides, that won’t come later this year from the FBI, a study from the council on criminal justice, they looked at 22 cities nationwide and they found that homicides increased 5% in 2021, over 2020, and also 44% over 2019. There’s no real sense that this surge in gun violence, it really started during the pandemic, seems to be abating in any way. In fact, it’s really, it’s getting worse.

America’s surge in violent crime. April 13, 2022. Niala Boodhoo speaking with Bryan Walsh.